Today's weather was absolutely gorgeous. Sunshine, crisp, clear and still over 8 hours of sunlight. Early this morning the moon was low on the horizon and orange. Tonight it is rising over the Chugach mountains almost full, big and bright. Temps ranged for 9 this morning to 24 at the peak of the afternoon. (These temperatures cause Squirt to run for his evening walks. I do think he has some husky in him....one of these days he will run to the end of his leash when I am on ice and pull me over. We will probably come directly home after he does that or wait for the ambulance to arrive.)
Back to the gripping tale of two rookies....
As mentioned yesterday, we have arrived and yet our goods are still somewhere on a boat between here and Seattle. So - there is a lot of time to kill and you can only hike the trails, explore the city, eat at new restaurants, lay on the floor to watch TV, read or drive around looking for wildlife for so many hours and so many days in a row and then it gets OLD. Luckily, there's still shopping.
I've already described the first couple of forays into the city finding some things successfully and others not so successfully. Window shopping and ordering some things on the internet. While doing all of this shopping, I discovered (some of you may want to sit down now) I sometimes take things for granted - one of them being in general I expect people to understand Alaska is a state.
I am honestly surprised I had this exchange with more than one company. Imagine yourself ordering something over the phone or at an on-line vendor clicking away left and right, rapidly filling up your shopping cart. (Good thing I got that discount for trying something new!) Whew - that was exhausting - I need to check out.
As with many typical online or mail orders, I have to provide too much information (in my opinion) but since I want the items I provide what is needed of course including Alaska as the state and hit ORDER. Then it happens. Big red letters stating something about there being a shipping problem. Back...Back... address - correct, daytime phone number - correct, evening phone number - correct, etc. etc. Nope everything looks right. ORDER and once again here come the big red letters. I don't have a problem with shipping or I wouldn't have agreed to pay for it. Reading the fine print a little closer it says, we don't ship to territories. Hmmm. I didn't ask you to.
Or, if ordering on the phone, there can be a sudden intake of breath followed by "we don't do that". This time I had a very nice gentleman who happened to be the store manager on the phone and I explain to him I need to ship something to Alaska. Believe it or not the answer I received was "we only ship to the United States" (or at least something REALLY closet to that).
OK. There are so many absolutely wonderful responses to that statement. Many of them disparaging about schools or geography - just so many avenues to travel down- but I think I stuck with something like.... exactly how many states do you think there are? To which the his immediate response was to say "Lower 48 - we only ship to the Lower 48". I suggested he use that phrasing in case he got this type of call again. I mentioned this to a fellow co-worker and they weren't surprised. Guess it is a common occurrence. However, I am still shocked.
But back to my dish rack - I know exactly what I want. I had one in Houston and it will fit perfectly in this cabinet. In fact, two will fit even better than one. We search high and low and can't find two let alone one in town. Back to the internet and this time I was successful.
I find the exact item I need at the first store I surf to. I put two in my shopping cart and heck while I'm here is there anything else I NEED? Surprisingly no. I go to check out, once again providing all of the necessary information and Click. Cost for my two items is $9.50. Click. Shipping for my two items is $10.00. You've got to be kidding me. Oh well, at least they will ship here. ORDER.
Amazingly enough I receive them with no problem.
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